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No Latino Left Behind Act

The Bush scheme relies on the specious argument that illegals are only taking jobs that nobody else wants, conveniently ignoring the fact that the only reason nobody wants those jobs is because they pay so little. But they pay so little simply because employers are able to make an end run around existing state and federal regulations by hiring folks too afraid of deportation to assert any expectations of enjoying a living wage, medical benefits and contributions to Social Security.

Make no mistake about it, the Presidentâ€™s proposed â€œGuest Workerâ€? plan of amnesty for illegal immigrants is not designed with the best interests of either undocumented aliens or bona fide United States citizens in mind. If Bush is behind it, you can be sure that the bill has more to do with ensuring an uninterrupted supply of cheap labor to big business than with securing our borders.

All you have to do is remember how he granted Halliburton and other mega-corporations billion-dollar no-bid contracts to rebuild Iraq and New Orleans to figure out whatâ€™s going on here. And he has the nerve to call those of us questioning his motives as â€œracist.â€? In this regard, heâ€™s resorting to the age-old ploy of divide-and-conquer, trying to pit the decimated unions and other suffering, underemployed segments of society against this marginalized sector of unfortunates made up mostly of Latinos.

The Bush scheme relies on the specious argument that illegals are only taking jobs that nobody else wants, conveniently ignoring the fact that the only reason nobody wants those jobs is because they pay so little. But they pay so little simply because employers are able to make an end run around existing state and federal regulations by hiring folks too afraid of deportation to assert any expectations of enjoying a living wage, medical benefits and contributions to Social Security.

As a consequence of this dire, domestic economic development, along with the unfortunate outsourcing of so many factory and skilled positions overseas, the rich are getting richer, the poor, poorer, and the American middle class continues to evaporate. The solution to the problem, however, does not lie in pitting blacks and others stuck at the bottom against the newcomers, and itâ€™s just as silly to speak of jailing illegals or of sending them back to their respective homelands when so many Latinos are already deeply entrenched in thousands of communities on this side of the Rio Grande .

Politicians ought to think twice before passing an ex post factoâ€”i.e., after the factâ€”law declaring over 8,000,000 aliens already living here anything but full-fledged citizens, especially when every child born in the U.S., (even to a foreigner) automatically qualifies for that coveted status. Any judge will tell you that it makes no sense to place an unenforceable statute on the books, because that only exposes the legal system as a powerless paper tiger.

Plus, if America is too damn broke to build a fence or lay land mines along the Mexican border, thereâ€™s no way we could find the cash for the legal expense of millions of individual deportation hearings. Therefore, like it or not, 99% of the illegal aliens are not going anywhere, so the focus ought to be on how to incorporate them into this culture as equals, not on how to demonize and criminalize them.

They deserve to be educated and uplifted, not marginalized and exploited, lest their degradation serve to encourage further erosion of all our rights and benefits in the face of an avaricious corporate onslaught which by design is indifferent to the fundamental human concern for the quality, sanctity and appreciation of life.

Black Star News columnist Williams is an attorney and a member of the bar in NJ, NY, CT, PA, MA & US Supreme Court bars.

â€œSpeaking Truth To Empower.â€? To contact The Black Star News write editor@blackstarnews.com or call (212) 481-7745. Subscribe to this newspaper and advertise to build power.